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[17]
Now when the banks were finished, which was done on the sudden, both
by the multitude of hands, and by their being accustomed to such work,
they brought the machines; but Chares and Joseph, who were the most potent
men in the city, set their armed men in order, though already in a fright,
because they did not suppose that the city could hold out long, since they
had not a sufficient quantity either of water, or of other necessaries.
However, these their leaders encouraged them, and brought them out upon
the wall, and for a while indeed they drove away those that were bringing
the machines; but when those machines threw darts and stones at them, they
retired into the city; then did the Romans bring battering rams to three
several places, and made the wall shake [and fall]. They then poured in
over the parts of the wall that were thrown down, with a mighty sound of
trumpets and noise of armor, and with a shout of the soldiers, and brake
in by force upon those that were in the city; but these men fell upon the
Romans for some time, at their first entrance, and prevented their going
any further, and with great courage beat them back; and the Romans were
so overpowered by the greater multitude of the people, who beat them on
every side, that they were obliged to run into the upper parts of the city.
Whereupon the people turned about, and fell upon their enemies, who had
attacked them, and thrust them down to the lower parts, and as they were
distressed by the narrowness and difficulty of the place, slew them; and
as these Romans could neither beat those back that were above them, nor
escape the force of their own men that were forcing their way forward,
they were compelled to fly into their enemies' houses, which were low;
but these houses being thus full, of soldiers, whose weight they could
not bear, fell down suddenly; and when one house fell, it shook down a
great many of those that were under it, as did those do to such as were
under them. By this means a vast number of the Romans perished; for they
were so terribly distressed, that although they saw the houses subsiding,
they were compelled to leap upon the tops of them; so that a great many
were ground to powder by these ruins, and a great many of those that got
from under them lost some of their limbs, but still a greater number were
suffocated by the dust that arose from those ruins. The people of Gamala
supposed this to be an assistance afforded them by God, and without regarding
what damage they suffered themselves, they pressed forward, and thrust
the enemy upon the tops of their houses; and when they stumbled in the
sharp and narrow streets, and were perpetually falling down, they threw
their stones or darts at them, and slew them. Now the very ruins afforded
them stones enow; and for iron weapons, the dead men of the enemies' side
afforded them what they wanted; for drawing the swords of those that were
dead, they made use of them to despatch such as were only half dead; nay,
there were a great number who, upon their falling down from the tops of
the houses, stabbed themselves, and died after that manner; nor indeed
was it easy for those that were beaten back to fly away; for they were
so unacquainted with the ways, and the dust was so thick, that they wandered
about without knowing one another, and fell down dead among the crowd.
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